Mobile STD Testing Consortium Wins $6.4 Million Grant in U.K.

U.K. researchers have received a $6.4 million grant to fund the eSTI?? mobile STD testing project, which will use mobile phones or PCs as testing devices.

STD, or STI (sexually transmitted infection),
testing is about to get more mobile and private. The United Kingdom's
Medical Research Council and Clinical Research Collaboration have
granted a consortium $6.4 million to develop the chips and software for
eSTI??, a mobile STD testing initiative.

The consortium includes industrial partners as
well as Brunel University, the Health Protection Agency, Warwick
University, and both Queen Mary and St. George's at the University of
London.

eSTI?? will process STD tests results on a mobile phone or PC instantly using nanotechnology, or submicroscopic technology.

Patients can get tested for chlamydia, gonorrhea
and other STDs. The consortium plans to promote the technology in
developing countries, St. George's reports.

Using eSTI??, individuals drop their blood, urine
or saliva on a mobile chip, which they then insert into a mobile phone
or PC. Software on the phone or PC then delivers a diagnosis, schedules
a clinic appointment or sends an electronic prescription to a
pharmacy.

eSTI?? could eliminate the delay of a few days to
get results, and individuals will have more privacy working on their
own mobile device rather than in a clinic.

Patients can still notify physicians or
pharmacists of the results immediately, according to Dr. Tariq Sadiq,
lead researcher on the project as well as a senior lecturer and
consultant physician in sexual health and HIV at St George's.

"These systems have real potential to give individuals more control
over their sexual health, reduce spread of infection, and radically
change the way STIs are diagnosed and managed," Sadiq said.

STI cases in the United Kingdom rose by 36 percent from 2000 to 2009, St. George's reports.

Meanwhile, about 19 million new STD cases are
diagnosed per year in the United States, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.

"This kind of system could also speed up the process of
communicating infection trends in the population to public health
doctors, allowing for quicker responses to outbreaks of an STI," Sadiq
explained.

"Mobile phones have changed the way we live and
communicate, and our team of experts firmly believes that they open up
a unique avenue for new ways to diagnose and control STIs," Sadiq
said.

Consumers will be able to purchase the chips in vending machines or at a local pharmacy.

"By making diagnoses easier to access in the
community, with immediate results, we aim to reduce infection rates and
improve sexual health," Sadiq said.

Researchers collaborating on eSTI?? will include
experts in telecommunications, microengineering, microbiology and
public health, according to St. George's.

Although the technology could be rolled out soon, confidentiality
and data protection issues must be resolved first, Sadiq said. "It will
also be vital to have tests that can be easily adapted to detect newly
identified STIs, as all the causes of sexually transmitted diseases
have still not been discovered."

In another project, George Whitesides, a Harvard
chemistry professor has designed technology in which patients' blood is
dropped on a piece of paper, and water-repellent ink resembling that of
a comic book creates diagnostic colors on the other side, CNN reports. The technology may be incorporated into mobile phones, according to CNN.

Meanwhile, location-based social network Foursquare
recently launched a program to allow patients to check in with the
popular service on their mobile device when they enter a clinic for STD
testing.

Brian T. Horowitz is a freelance technology and health writer as well as a copy editor. Brian has worked on the tech beat since 1996 and covered health care IT and rugged mobile computing for eWEEK since 2010. He has contributed to more than 20 publications, including Computer Shopper, Fast Company, FOXNews.com, More, NYSE Magazine, Parents, ScientificAmerican.com, USA Weekend and Womansday.com, as well as other consumer and trade publications. Brian holds a B.A. from Hofstra University in New York.